Intimate evolution of proteins. Proteome atomic content correlates with genome base composition.

Discerning the significant relations that exist within and among genome sequences is a major step toward the modeling of biopolymer evolution. Here we report the systematic analysis of the atomic composition of proteins encoded by organisms representative of each kingdoms. Protein atomic contents are shown to vary largely among species, the larger variations being observed for the main architectural component of proteins, the carbon atom.

Kinetic characterization of the pH-dependent oligomerization of R67 dihydrofolate reductase.

Protein-protein recognition results from the assembly of complementary surfaces on two molecules that form a stable, noncovalent, specific complex. Our interest was to describe kinetic aspects of the recognition in order to understand the subtle molecular mechanism of association. R67 dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) provides an ideal model to investigate kinetic parameters of protein-protein association since it is a homotetramer resulting from the pH-dependent dimerization of homodimers.